the lonely hearts club [saida, minayeon, jeongchaeng]

Chapter 5: mexico sounds nice

Living in a big house, Nayeon thinks, is a little overrated. After all, it's just her and her mom (her dad had passed away when she was very young, so she didn't exactly remember him), and coming home to an enormous house makes her feel small and alone, like she isn't enough to fill so much space. It doesn't help the fact that her mom is hardly around either, too busy on business trips or taking care of the company. This time though, her mother is waiting for her in her living room's sofa, pondering on something with a concerned expression on her face. Nayeon frowns at the sight.

"Mom?"

"Oh, Nayeon!" she rushes to her side when she notices her, hugging her tightly. "I heard that bitch Mina is in the Homecoming Dance Committee. Jeongyeon's mom told me."

She sighs, trying to pull her closer and accepting the embrace. Hugs from her mom are rare. "Ugh, don't remind me."

"How dare she?"

Nayeon remembers Sana's plan and almost feels herself blush. Of course her mom has no idea she's crushing on Mina. If she were to ever find out, she'd probably kick her out of her house. She was upset enough when they were friends.

"Apparently she didn't know I was still running it."

"That's ridiculous," her mother concludes.

"She's stupid," she says, but it has no bite to it.

"You can't let her take it and run it like it's hers," her mom pulls away to stare at her daughter in the eye, determined. "She's the enemy, don't you ever forget that. She can't win - Not a Myoui, and not after what she did to you. And you'll be Homecoming Queen, won't you? You won't let her take that."

Her mother knows better than anyone what had happened, and the reminder makes her feel a little sick in the stomach.

She shakes her head, ignoring how her vision grows blurry. "I won't let her, mother."

"Don't let me down, Nayeon."

"Why'd you promise strawberry shortcake when you don't even know how to make it?" Tzuyu frowns at the kitchen counter.

The entire room is filled with flour, including her hair and face. Chaeyoung's hands are tinted red from the strawberries she is cutting, and Dahyun is too concentrated cracking eggs to worry about her ruined hair and trying not to get the mix too fucked up. It's not that they are bad at cooking (well, at least Chaeng and Dahyun aren't, and Tzuyu can hold a spoon I guess, but none of them are great at baking per se, and the state of the kitchen reflects that).

"Because I can cook --"

"Sometimes," Chaeng reminds her.

"And Sana was super nice," Dahyun continues, ignoring her best friend. "Plus it's just a cake. How hard can it be?"

"Very hard!" Tzuyu whines, pointing at the mess they've made.

Well, at least the plan seems to be going incredibly well if Dahyun wants to do something special for Sana. Normally she was awfully lazy, and getting her out of bed was almost a chore sometimes. When she told them what Sana had done for them, Chaeng could only sigh - it had been so romantic she can't believe Dahyun hadn't noticed the other girl is positively whipped for her.

"I don't know why you asked for Tzuyu's help," Chaeyoung rolls her eyes, plopping one of the strawberries into her mouth. "She can't even make toast."

"I can make toast," her friend crosses her arms at her in anger. "I just need supervision and 911 on speed dial."

Chaeyoung snorts. "Remember when you tried to fry an egg and you set fire to that pan?"

"Why are you so meeeeeeean?"